US artillery and airstrikes killed between 50 and 60 suspected Taliban militants today, the fourth day of a Nato-led offensive in southern Afghanistan, a Nato spokesman said.

A suicide bomber in a car struck a Nato-Afghan military convoy today, killing one civilian and wounding two others, a day after a bomb at a market left 17 civilians dead and 47 wounded, officials said.

Afghan forces aided by NATO aircraft and artillery killed 71 suspected Taliban militants in running battles in southern Afghanistan that also left five Afghan troops dead in one of the bloodiest clashes since the 2001 US-led invasion.

President Hamid Karzai condemned a US airstrike that Afghan officials claimed killed 10 border policemen today.

A suicide bomber ploughed his explosives-laden car into a Nato-led force’s convoy in southern Afghanistan, killing one soldier, the force said. A purported Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for the attack.

A suicide bomber ploughed his explosive-laden vehicle into a Nato-led force’s convoy in southern Afghanistan, killing himself and damaging an alliance vehicle, a spokesman for the force said.

Afghan forces have killed 19 Taliban rebels as they traded rocket-propelled grenades and small arms fire with insurgents in volatile southern Afghanistan.

Two Canadian soldiers were killed in a suicide bomb attack on a coalition vehicle in Afghanistan.